


A Strand Will Slip (Away)

by crescenttwins



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Child Abuse, Child Death, F/M, Imported, Kinkmeme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 16:43:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1695308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescenttwins/pseuds/crescenttwins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five memories that Charles took away from Lelouch, and one he couldn't.</p><p>A.K.A. The Love Song of Marianne vi Britannia</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Strand Will Slip (Away)

  
**Original link:** <http://cgkinkmemeii.livejournal.com/2983.html?thread=4643495#t4643495>  
**Prompt** : five memories charles took from lelouch, and one that he didnt have to (alt interpretations welcome, but i had two thoughts on this;either five different lives lelouch could have been forced into after the end of R1, or five different times during childhood/whenever that charles used his geass on his son for whatever reason)

Warnings: on and off-screen violence towards children, descriptions of sex, offscreen childbirth, series spoilers, character death

* * *

 

**1\. 2004**

One day, a man in a black suit who usually watches Cornelia and her siblings play takes money from a red-haired woman. The man's name is Joseph, and he can't afford to pay for his mother's funeral, so he takes the money and takes a long smoke break.

When he returns, one of the Britannian children is missing, but he couldn't tell you which one. There's supposed to be six of them, anyway, three girls and three boys. It's not his job to tell you who it is.

Five days later, a tiny child is returned to the palace; the imprint of a fist on his face in blue and purple. His body, when they see it, is worse; they wrap him in bandages and stitch him together, whispering prayers for his recovery. When the boy's eyes open, he cries, purple irises drowning in fluid that spills over his cheeks. He sees nothing, eyes dull. A nurse whispers, _post traumatic stress disorder_.

He loses ten pounds in two weeks, and his mother strokes his head, her newborn cradled in her other arm.

"Come on, Lelouch," she whispers, "Nunnally is so eager to see you."

She mentions it to her husband over dinner, scratching the bottom of the plate with the sharp edge of her knife. The steak bleeds as she asks for a few days leave. Her husband grants it.

The next day, the child's father comes in and puts his hand over the boy's eyes, whispering at him. The nurses sigh, because it is his first visit since the boy arrived, but they can not verbalize such a thing about their emperor; the weight he carries is beyond them.

When the child wakes up the next morning, he smiles at the nurses and asks where Nunnally is. They don't question it, their wishes for the child granted, and call Nunnally's wet nurse to bring the infant.

(Before she returns, Marianne will have killed four men. Three who sent pictures of a beaten child to them to warn off Britannia from invading their tiny country, and one who had a receipt for a tombstone on his bedside table.)

 

 

**2\. 2003**

Lelouch cries whenever he sees Nunnally.

"Hate," he sobs, grasping onto Marianne's jacket and trying to push Nunnally away. Marianne catches his tiny hand.

"Why, Lelouch?" Marianne hums, rocking Nunnally gently.

"Hurt mother." Lelouch says, "Hurt." He pats her belly, over where her stitches are still healing. "Bad."

He slaps Nunnally with a weak hand, but it awakens her. Nunnally cries, inhaling only long enough to shout out her unhappiness; Lelouch stares at her, eyes wide, and he hides behind his mother's arm. Marianne sighs, calling over an attendant to take Lelouch for a short walk and she starts rubbing Nunnally's back.

"Charles," Marianne says later, her voice flat as she cradles Nunnally, "did you let Lelouch watch them cut Nunnally out of me?"

Charles is silent, handing her a napkin for Nunnally's spit.

"Fix this," Marianne orders. "I will not have a child traumatized because his father couldn't keep a child out of surgery."

"He said he wanted to see his sister being born," Charles mutters, weakly.

The next time Lelouch sees Nunnally, he kisses her cheek and asks Marianne why babies drool so much. Marianne hugs him and says he drooled that much, too.

She can't help but laugh at the horrified expression on his face.

 

 

**3.2006**

Armand la Britannia dies at age nine.

Two days before his death, he hugged Lelouch goodbye and promised to bring Clovis some paints from his vacation in Area 9. He laughed when Cornelia told him to be careful, because she was a worry-wart, and he nodded at Schneizel when the older male smiled at him.

One day before his death, Armand la Britannia is strapped to a chair and told to tell his father that they want freedom. A child is no shield against their wrath, they said. Armand laughed, because he was no shield. They slapped him, and he was left alone. He hummed the Britannian anthem as he wiggled his toes.

One day after his death, Lelouch keeps throwing up and refuses to turn on the lights. He hides underneath his bed, refusing to look at anyone except a three-year old Nunnally, whom he stares at and allows to lead him to the courtyard on unsteady feet. His fingers shake on the door handle, and Clovis hugs him, crying. His snot gets in Lelouch's hair, and Lelouch stares at the angry line of Cornelia's mouth and the blank look on Schneizel's face. They sit together silently in the center of the courtyard, not touching. Nunnally's wet nurse takes her away, and Lelouch watches as Nunnally disappears behind a door. When it gets dark and the electric lights flicker on, Lelouch starts screaming, and Clovis joins him; Cornelia and Schneizel hold them close.

On the day of his death, Armand is electrocuted by two men in white; a live video streams to every monitor in the Britannia palace. Those in the palace round up the children and shut them away from the video as fast as they can; Lelouch remains missing. By the time they find Lelouch, on the corner balcony of Armand's room with a tiny vid screen in his hand, it has been two hours and Armand is dead.

Two days after his death, Marianne pushes Charles vi Britannia into Lelouch's room, and Lelouch forgets that Armand la Britannia was ever more than a passing face in the vast halls of the palace.

 

 

**4\. 2009**

"It's stressful being a diplomat," a man in a suit says, kicking Lelouch's ribs. "Especially with that father of yours."

Lelouch whimpers, curling up further. He's rewarded with another kick.

"You're his son, so you'll take this, right?" The man laughs, "It's only right." He pulls Lelouch up by his hair, spitting in his face. "Why don't you kneel? I'll take it easier on you." He pat Lelouch's hair, mocking. "I won't break your other arm, I promise."

He drops Lelouch, and the boy hits the ground.

"Poor baby," he says.

"I agree." Marianne says, from behind him.

The man turns, spluttering, "I just- I found him like this, I swear, and-"

Marianne punches him as he inhales for his next round of excuses, breaking his nose. She grabs his shirt collar and brings her knee into his gut. When he chokes, she knocks his feet from under him and steps on his throat. She applies pressure until he passes out, choking on his own spit, and then turns to pick up Lelouch.

"Sorry," Marianne says, carrying him carefully, "I know you're a big boy now, but I want to carry you right now. Is that okay?" She feels him nod against her jacket. Marianne smiles at him, nodding at the guard she had brought with her, and starts walking to the infirmary.

They put a bright red cast on his arm, and Marianne draws a heart on it before Lelouch can protest.

The man is imprisoned, to be executed if he was treasonous. Marianne realizes that isn't the end of it when Lelouch stops being able to sleep.

"Lelouch," Marianne says to him, "what's wrong?"

"He's coming." Lelouch whispers, under his covers. "He'll come."

Marianne says, "Sleep."

Lelouch says, "okay," but is still up when she checks on him four hours later.

"Charles," Marianne says, as she sees Lelouch run into a corner and sag against it, "please fix this."

Charles wraps his hand around hers, always careful with affection when they are outside of their bedroom. "Okay." He says into the still air.

 

 

**5\. 2007**

Slick, wet heat.

Marianne pushes her legs open as Charles presses a kiss to her, licking her folds apart. His fingers trace her lips, and she nips one in warning, exhaling as her husband presses his tongue deeper. When he hums, curling his tongue against her, she shudders, moving one hand to push his head down.

"Charles," Marianne pants, back arching, "Charles." She wants to kiss him, this man. She tugs his head up, pressing a kiss to his lips as she turns him onto his back. His taste is mixed with her own, wet and filthy, and he moans into their kiss. Marianne straddles his waist, leaning over him; sweat drips from her breast to his, and she licks it up. She slides her body down his, until she covers as much of his torso as she can, and licks at his neck.

When he sighs, she bites into his shoulder, sucking, and nudges her hips down so his hard cock is resting against her entrance. She moans, sliding against it, and she can just imagine what it must look like, from the other side. If the door was open, then the intruder would have a fantastic view, the engorged dick of their emperor, leaking, dripping to get inside her folds. The thought makes her rub against Charles more, their nipples sliding together, and he grasps her hips.

"Marianne," Charles said, breathless, "please."

She raises herself up, grabbing hold of Charles's waist, and slides herself onto the tip of his length. "I'm not going to do all the work," she teases, wiggling her hips and enjoying the feel of him almost slipping out of her.

Charles grunts, and pushes her down onto his cock, raises his hips in the same motion. She takes him as sweetly as always, hot around him, and he takes one hand off her hips where he is pushing her down to roll her breast in his hand.

"Charles-" Marianne says, their hips coming together, "More-"

The door opens.

"Mother?" Lelouch says. "Nunnally wet the bed." He turns on the light, still not seeing his parents' coupling. "It's weird that you guys talk in the dark."

He drops his lamp when he sees them, and Marianne pulls off of her husband's softening penis, wrapping the top sheet around her. "I'm going to get dressed really quick, okay, Lelouch?" Marianne articulates slowly. "Meanwhile, you and Charles should have a long talk about how this _isn't something you should remember_."

Lelouch nods slowly, and when Marianne glances at him, Charles looks terrified.

She gets into her dressing room before she chokes, laughing.

 

 

**1\. 2010**

When Marianne's body is carried out under a white sheet, Lelouch and Nunnally have long gone to the hospital.

Charles knows, knows that-- that this is the time when he is blessed to have the ability that he does. There is something hot in his chest, a feeling that could easily fuel hatred and vengeance, and he surrounds it with ice; a ruler must always be cool headed.

So he goes to the hospital, and he questions Nunnally. What did she see? Who was there? Why did Marianne die? And when he is done, he wipes her memories of everything but the fact that her mother is dead, and takes her vision with it.

He casts a mist around her memories of Marianne, so that she will not mourn the woman who gave birth to her (who loved her).

Then he goes to Lelouch, and sees the boy, in a tiny plastic chair, crying in his sleep.

And when Nunnally awakens with no memories of her mother's death, the nurses will whisper that she has repressed such a tragic event. _Thank goodness_ , one will sigh, it's hard enough that she will never walk again.

And when Lelouch wakes up in the hall, his shoulders and back will ache and for the first time ( _although he doesn't know it's not, he'll never know that_ ) he will feel the ache of true suffering. And Lelouch will curse his father for not protecting his mother, for not visiting Nunnally, for not _caring_ enough.

(But Charles cares, cares too much. Cares enough to want someone else to remember Marianne the way he did; bright and beautiful. Even if that means that Lelouch will suffer, suffer, falling down into the same pit of despair that is growing within his chest.

Marianne loved him, so he deserved it.)

**Author's Note:**

> Poke me at crescenttwins.tumblr.com if you want to chat!


End file.
